The Rouleur Podcast

Sports commentator, journalist and Rouleur columnist Orla Chennaoui opens a big can of worms on the podcast this week – helmets.

It was the subject of her issue 20.3 column and caused some – generally – good-natured debate. Riding round Amsterdam, Orla goes without a head covering, something she’d never have considered when living in London. What is the difference? And what can other less cycling-friendly cities learn from the Netherlands’ approach?

She’s also presented us with a poem for the latest issue. Despite the editor’s trepidation, it’s a beauty on July without the Tour de France. Bravo!

Phil White was one of the Cervélo founders and a fascinating podcast guest on his last visit to London. Now he has joined turbo trainer and power meter gurus 4iiii to add his expertise to the company. Integrated power is coming, he tells Ian Parkinson. And power meters are now de rigueur. Listen up, Phil knows his stuff.

And what exactly has Desire editor Stuart Clapp been up to? Messing around in haunted woods and scaring himself silly, apparently. But he does have details of a Rouleur competition to win a spectacular 3T Exploro gravel bike. Very classy indeed, a bit like our Stu.

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Teniel Campbell hails from Trinidad, not exactly a hotbed of world class cycling stars. But this determined talent is on the edge of breaking big and inspiring the next generation of Trinidadians to follow her path.

“I’m gonna come back to Europe and whoop ass. Just stamp my name. I’m not here to try to survive in the peloton. I’m gonna be great.”

This Soca Warrior knows where she's headed.

The Rouleur Longreads Podcast brings you selected long form articles from the magazine, especially recorded for Rouleur. Don’t stop what you’re doing – do it while listening to the world’s best cycling writing.

The latest in this series is ‘Teniel Campbell: Trailblazer’ by Andy McGrath, from Rouleur 20.4. Read by George Oliver. Subscribe to Rouleur before June 8th to ensure you receive it.

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“We often refer to a bad or disastrous day as a dark one. The kind of dark that surrounded my family, team and friends that­­ day, all the while ignoring the fact that I was swimming in white. A dazzling, shiny and pure white, but at the same time cold and enigmatic. A sort of deaf white, if you like, that’s if a colour can have sound.”

On May 16th 2009, during the 8th stage of the Giro d’Italia, Rabobank rider Pedro Horrillo slipped off the road on the descent of the Colle San Pietro. His career ended there. From memories of the morning before the stage, to the sensations experienced while in a coma, this is his story.

The Rouleur Longreads Podcast brings you selected long form articles from the magazine, especially recorded for Rouleur. Don’t stop what you’re doing – do it while listening to the world’s best cycling writing.

The latest in this series is ‘The Crash’ by Pedro Horrillo, from Rouleur 19.3. Translated into English by Rob Hatch; Read by George Oliver.

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“Here I was, standing on a sand dune in Belgium, drinking a powerful Praline Chocolate Porter. Everything started to make perfect sense.”

'Cross may not be coming - for a while yet, at least - but that doesn't mean we can't daydream about days spent mucking around in the mud. For our latest Longreads Podcast we've turned back the clock to November to tell the story of when, for the Belgian special of Rouleur magazine, we sent our hedonism correspondents, The Deserter, to Koksijde. There they were not only witness, for the first time in their lives, to the thrills and spills of cycling on sand, but were flung face-first into the full-on Flandrian fan experience.

Fortunately for us - or perhaps thanks to chaperone Ian Cleverly - Dirty South and The Dulwich Raider lived to tell the tale.

The Rouleur Longreads Podcast brings you selected long form articles from the magazine, especially recorded for Rouleur. Don't stop what you're doing - do it while listening to the world's best cycling writing.

The sixth in this series is ‘Deserter's Dirty Weekend’ by Andrew Grumbridge for Deserter, from Rouleur 20.2. Read by Andrew Grumbridge.

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Luke Rowe checks in from home in Cardiff, training away as usual and enjoying some unexpected extra time with the family while adjusting his sights for a hoped-for return to racing later in the year. 

The Ineos rider’s been getting battered by team-mate Rohan Dennis on Zwift, misses racing the Spring Classics but is keeping a calm perspective on the current situation.

The Bigla-Katusha team, meanwhile, were rocked by the news that their sponsors would be withdrawing funding for the remainder of the season – surely a situation that will be repeated in both men’s and women’s cycling as the crisis continues. Lizzy Banks joins us to explain what the riders are doing now, and what comes next. 

World Bicycle Relief CEO Dave Neiswander and country director for Zambia, Brian Moonga, tell us how the Covid-19 pandemic is affecting the charity’s income and their campaign to supply 25,000 of their sturdy Buffalo bikes going to aid health care in Africa. 

And our very own Miles Baker-Clarke is king of the Rouleur Emporium. Host Ian Parkinson asks him what’s hot and what’s not right now, while the Desirable Stuart Clapp chips in with his pick of the goodies. A turbo trainer? You’ve changed, Stu… 

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“He walks along with a lurch, unbalanced and awkward. If you are not prepared for how utterly changed his posture is off the bike, it comes as a shock.

When we are inside his suite, I tell him what I think. ‘Honestly? You walk like a drunk, Chris.’

‘I do, he says, ‘yeah.'”

Following his horrendous crash prior to last year’s Dauphiné, many doubted we’d see Froome back on a bike, let alone planning his eighth Grand Tour victory.

Ned Boulting finds Froome in characteristic fighting form, training hard in Gran Canaria prior to lockdown, preparing for the Tour de France – if and when it happens.

He’ll be ready, no doubt about it.

The Rouleur Longreads Podcast brings you selected long form articles from the magazine, especially recorded for Rouleur. Don’t stop what you’re doing – do it while listening to the world’s best cycling writing.

The fifth in this series is ‘Chris Froome and the Seventh Seal’ by Ned Boulting, from Rouleur 20.3. Subscribe today from just £7 to receive it.

Read by George Oliver.

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With the world going into lockdown, indoor riding is, unsurprisingly, on the rise.

Turbo trainers are selling out faster than toilet rolls and training app subscriber numbers have gone though the roof.

We spend the day in a London studio with Mathieu van der Poel and the copious film crew to find out why Zwift is leading the way in the market.

The Rouleur Longreads Podcast brings you selected long form articles from the magazine, especially recorded for Rouleur. Don’t stop what you’re doing – do it while listening to the world’s best cycling writing.

The fourth in this series is ‘Watopian Ideals’ by Ian Cleverly, from Rouleur 20.2. Read by George Oliver.

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